Obama fails on promise to shut down Guantanamo

US officials have announced that nearly 50 prisoners of Guantanamo Bay Detention Center will be incarcerated indefinitely. This comes after the anniversary of Obama’s promise to shut Gitmo down within a year.

The special US presidential taskforce evaluating the detainees has classed the men as too dangerous to be released. Many of them are being held under the charge that they spent time at Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan.

Christopher Anders from the American Civil Liberties Union questions the legality of permanent detention under American law.

“Obama is planning on keeping as many as 50 of them without charge for the rest of their lives, without ever charging them with the crime. And that goes against the rule of law, against what President Obama stood for,” said Anders. “A lot of the evidence that was obtained was obtained by torture and no court in the United States would ever allow that evidence to be used to convict someone.”

Following the recent transfer of two detainees to Algeria, there are now 196 prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay.